The oldest in each igloo asked, “Who are you, what do you want? Why are you here?”
“We’re US Military, why did you fire RPGs at our convoy?”
“We thought you might have something we could use.”
“Why didn’t you just wave us down and ask us?”
“We haven’t had good luck with strangers. The last couple of vehicles took most of our girls away from us, they also killed nine of us. We lost Tommy two toes and Sally four fingers and Jane no ears.”
“Those are funny names…”
“Frost bite before we learned. They lost fingers, toes and ears. It wasn’t until a nice woman found us in Tommy’s house that she taught us how to live in the cold. She helped treat those of us who had bad frost bite before it claimed more of us with gang green, I think it was what she called it.”
“Why didn’t you go with her?”
“She didn’t go anywhere. She had cancer and died with us. She’s buried under a snowbank, her cross is now covered up with snow. You can’t see it anymore, but we all know where it is.”
“She taught you how to build igloos?”
“And how to dress for the cold?”
“Yes, we went house to house taking the clothing we needed. The houses have enough wood to keep our fires going for many years. As for food we discovered every house had some. Most was frozen but once thawed it was okay to eat. That’s how we’ve been living.”
“What about the weapons?”
“The rifles came from a house. The owner had lots of them in the basement. The RPGs came from a truck we found buried in the snow.”
“Is the truck still there?”
“Yeah, it has some kind of funny writing on it as did the wooden boxes the RPGs were in. Instructions were printed in many languages. Before you ask about our parents, they’re all gone. Either the cold or raiders or sickness killed them. We used to be a large group of over three hundred, the twenty-four are all that’s left of us. Some got so sick they died. After the nice lady died, we didn’t know why our friends died. Some wandered off and we never saw them again. The snow sometimes comes so quick it covers everything. The wind feels like we’re getting stabbed. We only go out a few times a week unless we hear the sounds of vehicles coming. Then we attack them to see if they have anything we can use. We got some new winter clothing from some…”
“What about the people in the vehicles?”
“We usually let them go after they give us what we want. If they fight us, we kill them, sometimes we cut them up and broil them over the fires. At first some of us got sick at the thought of eating another person, but it’s meat and meat is impossible to find.”
Doc shook his head. “We have space in our convoy and doctors, we have food and…”
“Real food or that junk in a box you call food.”
Doc laughed. “Mostly the junk in a box. It is good for you and some of it tastes okay if you put enough hot sauce on it.”
“What’s hot sauce?”
“Kid, you’ve got a lot to learn,” smiled Doc. You wait here, I’ll bring some vehicles here to pick you up. I don’t think many of you are strong enough to walk to our convoy.”
“Thanks, sir.”
Doc laughed. He sent three people to brief the Colonel.
@@@@@
The convoy’s medical team arrived in two MRAPs marked with bright red crosses on them. They examined the children in the igloos. The head doctor met with the Colonel. “Most have lost toes, fingers, or ears from frost bite, all are malnourished, all suffer from lack of vitamin D which is normal for all of us if we don’t take the supplements. I think most will make it, I’m very concerned about three of them. They need a hospital which we don’t have and won’t have for another few hundred miles.”
“Do what you can for them. When can we leave? Every hour we stay here the convoy is burning fuel and the snow is making our trip worse.”
“I’ll get them into vehicles within thirty minutes.”
“Thanks.”
A knock on Jon’s window woke him from a short catnap, “Hello Colonel, what’s up?”
“I’d like to put two young kids in your third row…”
“Sure. Whatever you need.”
“Their names are Jackie, age nine and Ron her brother age eleven. We don’t know their last names, no parents. Don’t ask how they’ve survived, you may not like the answer.”
Frank and the two Coats’ girls got out so the two new children could squeeze into the Suburban’s third row of seats. As soon as they were in Ron said, “Hello, I’m Ron and this is my sister Jackie, she doesn’t talk much. She used to be very talkative, but a man did something to her and she’s been silent since.”
“Well welcome, I’m Mr. Coats, my wife, and the young man is Frank and our daughters, Trinity and Ariden. We’re from Canada.”
“Where’s that? Never heard of it.”
“We have a long ride ahead of us, we’ll tell you all about it as we drive. Is it warm enough back there? If you need more heat look for the little lever that has a red and blue scale, move it to the red for more heat and blue for less.”
“Thanks, I want more. I think I’m going to like it in here so does Jackie. Anytime we want heat, we just move the lever. Much better then
